Attitudes and Values: A Further Test of the Semantic Memory Model

A hierarchical model for the storage of attitudes and values, for which evidence was presented by Gold and Russ, was studied with the use of a choice reaction time paradigm. Twenty three male and female university students responded with evaluative judgments (good-bad, etc.) by pressing one of two telegraph keys to a series of stimuli consisting of 10 of Rokeach's terminal values, 10 values designed by the authors to be the opposites of these terminal values, and 42 attitude items. Items preceded by values to which they were related, as determined through a previously administered paper and pencil measure, were responded to faster than items preceded by unrelated values. The value RT's did not vary as a function of their relatedness to the preceding attitude items. Positively held values were responded to faster than negatively held values. No RT effects were found for matching or mismatching in the evaluative sign of the attitude item-value or value-attitude item pairs. The results were interpreted as supporting a hierarchical storage model of attitudes and values.